Lullaby
by InfinityRabbit
Summary: Even Shukaku is haunted by voices from a time long gone, even if he prefers to bury the haunting melody away instead.


_**Lullaby**_

**A/N: **This is my first fanfiction work to be completed and posted here, its only a one shot but I would be very grateful for any constructive critisism good or bad. Thankyou for reading.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto,Edo Lullaby or its translation which can be viewed in its entirety on wikipedia**

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><p><em><strong>Edo Lullaby<strong>_

_Nennen korori yo, Okorori yo._

_Bōya wa yoi ko da, Nenne shina~_

_Bōya no omori wa, Doko e itta?_

_Ano yama koete, Sato e itta._

_Sato no miyage ni, Nani morotta?_

_Denden taiko ni, Shō no fue._

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><p><em>Nennen korori yo, Okorori yo.<em>

_Hushabye, Hushabye!_

Demonic chakra swirled and raged as Shukaku returned from the trance he found himself caught in. It was no use to think about the past now, not while he was trapped - chained like some common dog behind the seals of his prison.

He had not thought of the past in centuries and he wasn't going to start now, not when he felt such a sense of foreboding. Shukaku could feel the tension in the air surrounding the jar he had been confined in since his last jinchuuriki had died.

Even from his captivity he could feel the nervous energy and hear the muffled whispers of his guards. After some time the sand demon heard the words that caused his rage to flow from him in torrents and his hate to make all other mutterings deaf to his ears.

He was to receive a new jinchuuriki, another sacrifice that would demand from him his power and claim it to be their own. His livid mind caused his prison to shudder under his vehement fury.

If these humans thought that they could contain him they had another thing coming. Shoving the persistent whispers of a time long gone to the back of his subconscious Shukaku raged and planned the downfall of his next jinchuuriki into violent madness.

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><p><em>Bōya wa yoi ko da, Nenne shina~<em>

_My good Baby, Sleep!_

Driving his jinchuuriki to kill had been almost laughingly easy over the last few years and now Shukaku would get the chance to crush the village of the ones who had first imprisoned him, who had been the first inspiration for the creation of the jinchuuriki host.

But just when he was finally going to get the chance to crush the green village he was being stopped by Kurama's new idiot host. The blond brat was ruining everything he had meticulously planned just for this event.

Not to mention that being this close to his demonic brother was causing the whispers he had been ignoring for the last decade to become loud, trying to shove to the forefront of his mind.

Curse the blond brat and that fox.

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><p><em>Bōya no omori wa, Doko e itta?<em>

_Where did my boy's baby-sitter go?_

Those Akatsuki bastards thought that they could take his power without a fight; it had taken his jinchuuriki years just to fight off the bloodlust in order to rise to his goal of Kazekage.

Shukaku had never been prone to getting along with others -especially his jinchuuriki- but in this situation he happily lent as much of his power as his jinchuuriki could take. He did not want to lose this battle; his pride was on the line here. After all no human alive should be able to conquer against a bijou, a pure chakra construct.

Yet as the battle continued Shukaku again felt a sense of foreboding that he had not experienced in years. It was a feeling that put him on edge and made him doubt his jinchuuriki's experience; after all it couldn't have been him that was making him worry if they would actually win the fight.

It was in that moment that his jinchuuriki got a face full of explosives and in the following moments did something that was totally unthinkable to the Ichibi.

His jinchuuriki -someone who only a few short years ago had hated everything that breathed almost as much as Shukaku himself- used the last of his chakra to save the very village that had forsaken him from birth.

They had lost their second battle since the birth of his jinchuuriki.

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><p><em>Ano yama koete, Sato e itta.<em>

_Beyond that mountain, back to her home._

As the agonized screams of his jinchuuriki rang out in the dank cavern, Shukaku felt his very soul -if you could consider him as having one- being ripped from his current prison only to be condemned to another.

He could feel himself growing weaker in his current host, yet the voices that he had tried to block and ignore for so long only grew stronger in the face of his weakness.

The voices from his past when he was still a young creature and just beginning to learn of the evil and corrupt ness that seemed to spread like a dark plague. It was when the shinobi world was still relatively young, a time when battles raged and those who were not strong enough -not hardened enough- fell to death and misery.

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><p><em>Sato no miyage ni, Nani morotta?<em>

_As a souvenir from her home, what did you get?_

It was from a time when he spent a sliver of his eternity still with the belief that humans would accept their existence. There was a girl whose hair shone in the desert sun and who smiled even in the face of death. He remembered her smile to be kind and forgiving, so full of life. She became his companion and he became her protector.

She would sing her lullaby and her laugh would tinkle like wind-chimes. The desert would seem less unforgiving, less ruthless, when she danced in the soft sand. Yet he failed to protect his companion from the plague of war and the battle for power.

It was her death at the hands of another human -so full of greed and bloodlust- that had caused Shukaku to feel the bloodthirsty rage towards humans. Power and greed had caused her pain, while her last words still held love and forgiveness. So Shukaku would wipe greed from this world for her.

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><p><em>Denden taiko ni, Shō no fue.<em>

_A toy drum and a shō flute._

Yet here he was after spending so much time at the mercy of humanity's greed for power, still no closer to his goal and controlled by the very type of people he hated.

He was failing again, and as he felt his conscious recede into the odious statue he could only think of his regret and how much he wished to see his dearest friend's face and hear her sing her lullaby just one more time.

He knew he would probably never see the full moon with his own eyes ever again.

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><p>"Every time you gaze up at the full moon remember how much I love you, Shukaku"<p> 


End file.
